Remember the white girl in the Shaquanda Cotton Case?

I do not know if this new justice movement has legs, but I wrote earlier that this is about justice for EVERYONE that simply STARTS with black children. Trickle up politics at its best.

In writing about the Shaquanda Cotton case many of us blogged (and Howard Witt wrote) about a young white girl who received probation for burning her house down. This compared to Ms. Cotton who was sentenced for a minor altercation with a teacher.

Anyway, turns out that the young girl violated the terms of her probation. And suffered a fate far worse than Ms. Cotton. Even after being routinely assaulted sexually by a prison guard she remains in prison–in fact her prison sentence was extended.

Now if the white progressive blogosphere was anything like the black progressive blogosphere–concerned with concrete domestic issues as well as foreign policy ones–I’d suspect we’d see an array of folks mobilizing to get this girl out.

If you’re waiting for Black folks to celebrate the molestation of somebody’s child, whatever their color, you’ll be waiting for a long time Cobb. We’re far more decent and sensible than you seem to be capable of realizing.

tootsie
on October 9, 2007 at 2:18 am

Right on Malik

Blair
on November 3, 2007 at 9:44 am

In Texas, assaults are classified as misdemeanors, but they become felonies if the person assaulted is a federal servant, such as a police officer or school teacher. Two witnesses testified they saw Shaquanda Cotton assault the teacher and refuted Shaquanda version of the incident. Had the incident been an isolated incident, it probably would have resulted in mild in-schooll punishment, but it wasn’t an isolated incident. The school reported the incident to police and the district attorney’s office decided to file charges because of her record of previous offenses. (The Paris School District has announced its willingness to release Shaquanda disciplinary records to reporters, provided they first get her mother’s approval.)

Most children aren’t afraid of getting into trouble at school; they are afraid of the trouble they will get into at home for getting into trouble at school. Teachers refer to some parents as “problem parents.” These are parents who refuse to believe their children can ever be at fault. They take the position that everyone—administrators, teachers and other students—who say their child was in the wrong must be lying. If their child repeatedly gets into trouble, then it’s because they are being picked on.

Before Shaquanda went to trial, the district attorney’s office offered a plea bargain reduction from felony to misdemeanor assault and two years juvenile probation. Her mother and defense attorney turned it down. She was tried and adjudicated as delinquent. The defense asked the judge rather than a jury to set punishment. Texas law allows judges to release juveniles to their families, provided family members provide verbal assurances that they will do their best to ensure the juvenile meets the provision of the parole by staying out of trouble. The judge offered to release Shaquanda to her mother, but her mother refused to provide the verbal assurances required by law. She took the stance that her daughter had done nothing wrong and should not have to abide by provisions of parole. Therefore, the judge turned Shaquanda over to the Texas Youth Commission. She was placed in a juvenile detention facility for an indeterminate period, lasting a long as it would take her to complete the commission’s behavior modification program. The minimum time required to complete the program is nine month. Due to some minor rule infractions, Shaquanda spent about 12 months before being released.

The Paris white girl who burned her own house accepted a plea bargain and was released on parole to her family. Her family, unlike Shaquanda’s mother, provided the required assurances required by law that they would do their best to ensure that their daughter complied with the parole provisions. A manic depressive with a history of suicide attempts and self-mutilation, the girl soon violated her parole and was sentenced to the same juvenile detention facility as Shaquanda Cotton. Once there, the girl became one of several girls sexually molested by a prison guard in a case that became a major scandal. A victim of multiple rapes and the focus of a major scandal, she remains in the juvenile detention cneter.

Lester Spence
on November 3, 2007 at 10:22 am

Thanks for the long response Blair. The problem here, as with Jena, is that Paris as a town has a history of racial subjugation in the town in general, and in the school in particular.

So what Ms. Cotton’s supporters are saying is that she was being unduly punished for the political actions of her mother. If this was the case, then what we’d see in regards to previous offenses are two trends: 1. a trend of being punished for minor infractions; 2. a trend of increasing punishment after the mother became more politically active. From sources I’ve read both of these trends were present.

From what I understand there was no probation offered, but the reason that Ms. Cotton didn’t accept it was because it would have involved actually pleaing guilty. She maintained her innocence.

Finally given the context I think any discussion of “minor infractions” actually state what those infractions are. From what I understand here, among these “minor infractions” was posessing an extra pair of socks.

Blair
on November 3, 2007 at 2:27 pm

All American cities, not just Paris or Jena, have a history of racial subjugation.

If your sources say no probation was offered to Shaquanda Cotton, they are uninformed. The Boston Globe reported that “Prosecutors say they offered Shaquanda a plea agreement that would have reduced the felony charge to a misdemeanor and given her two years’ probation. But Creola Cotton rejected the plea on behalf of her daughter.” According to the Globe, “Prosecutors say they offered Shaquanda a plea agreement that would have reduced the felony charge to a misdemeanor and given her two years’ probation. But Creola Cotton rejected the plea on behalf of her daughter, prosecutors said.” The Globe also noted that “Superville gave Shaquanda an indefinite sentence, but she had to stay at least 12 months given the severity of her offense.” Blogs that say Shaquanda was sentence to seven years because juveniles can be held in the system until their 21st birthday are being deliberately missleading.

It was also my understanding that Shaquanda spent 12 months in the behavior modification program due to minor infractions such as “posessing an extra pair of socks.” But apparently the judge specified she had to remain for 12 months. Twelve months is well short of seven years.

The following article, based on trail testimony, is the only one I have seen that gives both side of the story:

By Charles Richards
The Paris News, March 12, 2006: A 14-year-old girl has been sentenced to a state juvenile correction facility “for an indeterminate period not to exceed her 21st birthday” for shoving a 58-year-old teacher’s aide. The incident occurred Sept. 30 at Paris High School, while the aide was on hall monitor duty. The girl has a history of problems at school. County Judge Chuck Superville said the girl must spend a minimum of one year at a Texas Youth Commission facility. How much longer she will stay depends upon her progress, the judge said.

A three-man, three-woman jury listened to testimony Thursday and Friday before being handed the case about 3:30 p.m. Friday. The jury deliberated just 10 minutes before reporting it had a verdict: “We the jury find it true that the respondent … did engage in delinquent conduct by commission of an assault on a public servant as charged in the petition.” according to court testimony.
Superville discharged the jury, and the trial moved into the punishment phase, which continued for about two and a half hours before defense attorney Wesley Newell and the Lamar County district attorney’s office rested about 6:15 p.m. Friday.

School officials said they have dealt with the girl, who is now a high school freshman, many times on disciplinary issues dating back several years.

Newell argued for probation, and Superville had gone on record that sending a teenager to the TYC was something he generally would do only as a last resort.
Prosecutors argued against probation, saying that the girl’s mother is perhaps her biggest problem and that the girl has no hope of getting better as long as she’s in the same home as her mother. District Attorney Gary Young said the mother’s response to any problem at school was to paint school officials as racist.

During the punishment phase, a half-dozen or so teachers — both white and black — from the high school or from Paris Alternative School, where the girl was transferred after the incident last September, described the girl as “openly defiant, generally did not follow rules.
Michael Johnson, a teacher/coach at the alternative school, said after a teacher “wrote her up” for violation of rules, the girl told him “I’m going to bust her in the nose.” She wanted to go home, but he made her go to the office with him, Johnson said. He said she told him, “You don’t know me very well, because I’ll burn this school down.”

Johnson, who is black, said the girl’s mother berated him, calling him the equivalent of an Uncle Tom.
The jury had three women, one of whom was black, and three men.

PHS principal Gary Preston said the school district made available every resource it had “but regularly got road-blocked with non-support of her mother.” He said he knows of nothing more that can be done.

“I think (the girl) is capable, but she is enabled by a mother who won’t support the attempts to help her. … Up until now, I think it has been very harmful for her to be in the same home with her mother.”

The girl admitted pushing the teacher’s aide, Cleda Brownfield, but said she did so only after Brownfield shoved her first.

The Sept. 30 incident occurred about 15 to 20 minutes before regular classes were to begin at 8:30 a.m. at Paris High School. Brownfield was the hall monitor in a building where some students were having meetings and others were being helped by tutors.

The hall monitor’s job is to lock the doors about 8:05 a.m., keeping all other students out of the hallways until 8:30 a.m. to keep disruptions at a minimum. Brownfield said she was on her way to lock the door when the girl walked in. When the girl was told she couldn’t come in, she protested, saying she had to go to the restroom, Brownfield testified.

She told her she’d have to use a restroom in the cafeteria across the courtyard, and the girl finally left, she said. Minutes later, when another student was admitted into the building for a meeting, the girl insisted that she also be let in. When the girl told her, “I’ll knock your block off,” and moved to come in, Brownfield said, she put up her hands in a defensive posture, and the girl responded by shoving her hard.

A teacher, Jerry Fleming, was nearby and the girl complained that he had a pencil in his hand, causing a cut on her hand when he put out his hand to restrain her. He also stepped on her shoelaces, causing her to fall, and she bumped her head, she said.
School resource officer Brad Ruthart testified he was on duty in the parking lot when he was summoned to the building because Brownfield “had been assaulted by a student.” He said he found her in the lounge and the student seated outside the principal’s office.

Brownfield “was crying, very upset, holding her arm. I asked her if she was OK, and she said she was not. I felt she needed medical help. She was so upset she had difficulty talking,” said Ruthart, a Paris police officers who works as a school resource officer for PISD.

The girl “was very calm, didn’t appear to be a threat,” Ruthart testified. During the next half hour, he talked to the various teachers who were either involved or had seen part of what happened. He also talked to the girl and to several of her friends, all of whom insisted that Brownfield shoved first.
“I thought it didn’t seem like something Brownfield would do. From what I knew of her and from what others were saying, it didn’t add up,” he said. Ruthart said he had known the teacher’s aide for several years and described her as “mild-mannered, soft-spoken, a grandmotherly type.”

The girl’s mother testified late Thursday afternoon that she got dressed and drove to Paris High School after receiving a telephone call that her daughter had been involved in an incident.

“She was sitting in the office with two other girls, crying. She had a knot on her head and a cut on her hand,” she said.

She talked with Ruthart and Preston, she said.

“I was upset because my daughter was sitting there hurting, and nobody was doing anything to help her. I asked them why nothing had been done to treat her injuries,” she said.

Newell asked if she got any satisfaction from them.

“No, they could care less,” she said.

She took her daughter to the hospital emergency room, where she was treated for a contusion on her head, a laceration on her hand and a sprained neck, she said.

About an hour after the incident, Brownfield was removed from the school on a stretcher and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

The girl’s mother said her daughter has Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and was trying to get into the building that day so she could get medication from the school nurse.

Brownfield testified the girl made no mention of needing to see the nurse and that if she had, she would have been allowed to do so. Ruthart said the girl also said nothing to him about having wanted in the building to see the school nurse.

Lester Spence
on November 3, 2007 at 3:31 pm

All American cities, not just Paris or Jena, have a history of racial subjugation.

I should have been more specific in my response, though I’ve talked a little bit about Jena and Paris vis a vis urban space in another post. Neither Jena nor Paris are cities…both are better thought of as towns. They’ve both small black populations, and are both situated in “the deep south”. Further both have a history of racial terrorism. We can say that “all American cities have a history of racial subjugation” but that leaves us uniquely unable to explain the problematic aspects of the Cotton and Bell cases. What happened to Bell would have never happened in Detroit. Why? What happened to Cotton would LIKELY not have happened in Atlanta. Why?

I would suggest you check your sources again. According to the Chicago Tribune probation is nowhere in the trial transcript.

But apparently the judge specified she had to remain for 12 months. Twelve months is well short of seven years.

The original sentence was up to seven years…with additions that could END at that point being determined by the violation of minor infractions. Possessing an extra pair of socks tacked on months to her sentence.

Ruthart said the girl also said nothing to him about having wanted in the building to see the school nurse.

Had the incident been an isolated incident, it probably would have resulted in mild in-schooll punishment, but it wasn’t an isolated incident. The school reported the incident to police and the district attorney’s office decided to file charges because of her record of previous offenses.

Shaquanda had no criminal record. A school disciplinary record is not a criminal record. Talking back to teachers and chewing gum may be an infraction of school rules, but it’s not a crime.

Teachers refer to some parents as “problem parents.” These are parents who refuse to believe their children can ever be at fault. They take the position that everyone—administrators, teachers and other students—who say their child was in the wrong must be lying. If their child repeatedly gets into trouble, then it’s because they are being picked on.

That’s an educational administration issue, not a criminal justice issue.

The judge offered to release Shaquanda to her mother, but her mother refused to provide the verbal assurances required by law. She took the stance that her daughter had done nothing wrong and should not have to abide by provisions of parole.

There’s a great deal of reason to believe that Ms. Cotton did not in fact do anything wrong.

According to Ruthart’s testimony, Brownfield “was crying, very upset, holding her arm. I asked her if she was OK, and she said she was not. I felt she needed medical help. She was so upset she had difficulty talking.” Ruthart testified that Cotton, who was being held in the office, “was very calm, didn’t appear to be a threat” at this point. According to Brownfields statement, she wanted to return to work but was told by Ruthart to go to the hospital. Several teachers testified that Cotton instigated the attack. Several students testified that Brownfield and teacher Jerry Fleming “shoved first.” Ruthart stated he preferred to believe Brownfields version and she was a “mild-mannered, soft-spoken, a grandmotherly type.”

Cotton did not testify at the trial. Brownfield testified that Cotton never requested to visit the nurse’s office. Ruthart testified that Cotton made no mention of needing to visit the nurse’s office when he questioned her about the incident afterward. He also admitted that he never questioned her regarding her injuries or needing to visit the nurse.

Approximately two hours after the incident Brownfield was placed on a stretcher and taken to the hospital by ambulance. However, no evidence of injuries to Brownfield was ever produced at trial. Cotton’s mother also drove her to the emergency room for the cut on her hand, head contusion and sprained neck suffered during the exchange.

No one has argued that Shaquanda’s school previous disciplinary infractions were criminal offenses. The school district considered her disciplinary record in decided to file charges in the aggravated assault case. The district attorney at first offered to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor with two years probation. She and her mother refused the plea bargain. After a jury listened to the evidence and convicted her, the court against offered her probation. The judge sentenced her to at least one year in the Texas Youth Commission’s behavior modification program. The adnormal thing about her case is that her mother refused to accept the jury verdict.

Small towns like Paris, Texas, have fully integrated school systems. All the kids, black or white, go to the same schools. Unlike many urban school systems, it’s not a pipeline to prison for minorities. The white residents of Detroit abandoned their school systems and fled to the suburbs. Detroit public schools are now 91 percent black. During the 2005-06 school year, Detroit Public School officials issued 39,318 disciplinary referrals and filed 5,500 crime reports. Police have long ridden on Detroit school buses to hold down violence. This year, the Detroit school system is beefing up security by stationing police mini-stations in some schools.

“A 1984 study by the federal monitoring commission found that fatal shootings or stabbings in or around schools, assaults on students and teachers and a ready supply of weapons and drugs on school grounds all remained frighteningly common in Detroit high schools. Three years later a survey found that over half of Detroit teachers reported that violence was a ‘frequently—if not daily’ part of their school experience.’ –The Rise and Fall of an Urban School District by Jeffrey Mirel

“Metro Detroit stands, according to the most recent US census findings, as the most demographically segregated area of the nation – this includes factors such as SES, race, as cited by Silverman (2002). In particular, the Detroit public school system is considered to be one of the worst in the United States at present, but has not always been that way – according to Mirel (1993), the

Prosecutors argued against probation, saying that the girl’s mother is perhaps her biggest problem and that the girl has no hope of getting better as long as she’s in the same home as her mother.

You really should check your sources.

The judge sentenced her to at least one year in the Texas Youth Commission’s behavior modification program. The abnormal thing about her case is that her mother refused to accept the jury verdict.

The jury convicted her of aggravated assault. Judge Superville then sentenced her to a minimum of one year and up to seven years in TYC. Probation was never offered. What was there to accept?

Lester Spence
on November 3, 2007 at 9:46 pm

No one has argued that Shaquanda’s school previous disciplinary infractions were criminal offenses.

There are two moments where bureaucrats have the ability to define reality. The first moment is in deciding that something like “talking back” or “wearing a skirt one inch too high” is an infraction. If the Paris high school is like other high schools this type of behavior happens all of the time, and while some students are punished others are not. The second moment is in considering the record of infractions when deciding whether to file charges. Both moments are charged, given Paris’ history and allegations of discrimination.

Small towns like Paris, Texas have fully integrated school systems.

What do you mean by “fully integrated?” What percentage of Paris residents are not white?

Unlike many urban school systems, it’s not a pipeline to prison for minorities.

So, using the example of Shaquanda Cotton…what would you say that Paris is a pipeline to exactly?

Blair
on November 4, 2007 at 1:16 pm

Answer to # 11.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says the word “offense” applies to the infraction of any law, rule, or code. If I had meant “criminal offense” I would have written “criminal offense.” As an example, it gives as an example: “at that school no offense went unpunished.” The Paris school system had announced its willingness to release Shaquanda Cotton’s disciplinary records to reporters, provided they first get a release from her mother. All we know about them is from newspaper accounts of witness statements at her trial. According to the testimony, she threatened to burn down the school and to bust a teacher in the nose. Other school districts, in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre, have initiated charges against students for making threats. In Texas, a person could be convict of assault for threatening to “bust someone in the nose.”

It is true that prosecution did argue against probation; however, the posecution is not the court. The judge offered probation. Shaquanda’s mother refused to give the assurances required by law, leaving the judge no choice but to Shaquanda over to the Texas Youth Commission. He sentenced her to an indeterminate amount of time but specified that she spend at least one year in the commission behavior modification program. All juveniles are placed in the behavior modification program for an indeterminate time—the amount of time it takes them to complete the program. The program can be completed in nine months. Juveniles who commit infractions while in the program can be held longer; however, they cannot be held in the juvenile detention facility past their 21st birthday. Therefore, the language “not to exceed” a set number of years gets tagged onto all juvenile sentences. It’s the number of years between the time a juvenile enters the program and his or her 21st birthday.
A fair statement would be: “Shaquanda Cotton was placed in the Texas Youth Commission’s behavior modification course. The course can be completed in as little as nine month; however, Judge Superville specified that Cotton spend at least one year in the program. Juveniles who fail to comply with program requirements can be held until their 21st birthday.”

What I mean by fully integrated is that the town’s entire student body attends the same high school. There are no predominately “white” and predominately “black” high schools as there are in large urban school districts. There is no “white flight” to affluent suburbs.

Answer to # 12.
According to the Paris Independent School Districts annual report, the district is 40.1 percent African American, 7.1 percent Hispanic, 50.9 percent white, 1.3 percent Native American and 0.6 percent Asian/Pacific Islander. Its graduation rate is 88.2 percent and its dropout rate is 0.8 percent. Its average SAT score is 1034. This compares favorably to urban school systems such as the Detroit Public School System. According to the Detroit News, “Experts put the city’s dropout rate between 60 percent and more than 70 percent, depending on the method of analysis.” As part of a nationwide study, John Hopkins University labeled the following DPS schools as “dropout factories.” According to Wikipedia, the graduation rate in Detroit schools is 21.7 percent. Detroit accelerates the “school to prison” pipeline by establish police mini-stations in its school. According to Wikipedia, “On August 31, 2007, Detroit Public Schools announced that they have opened a Detroit Police mini-station in Henry Ford High School. Detroit Free Press article indicated that police mini-stations are planned for Cody, Cooley, Northwestern and Central high schools. DPS maintains its own sworn and armed police officers.

In urban school systems, violence against teachers is so common that shoving a school teachers might be ignored, but shoving a school teachers in small school districts, such as Paris, where school discipline is maintain, assaults on school teachers are taken seriously. According to the Texas Penal Code, “assault is a misdemeanor; however, assault becomes the more serious crime of aggravated assault if the offender uses a firearm or other deadly weapon, the assault causes serious bodily injury, the assault is in retaliation against a witness or informant, or the assault is against a government employee acting in his or her official capacity. Generally, assault is defined as intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly injuring or threatening to injure a person or the person’s spouse. Additionally, assault includes intentionally causing physical contact with another person if the offender knows the physical contact will be offensive to the victim.” Notice that no physical contact or injury is required.